Shaun,

I have a couple ideas.

First, are you eating enough? You have probably run out of the beginner gains and now need to add some mass. Only way to add muscle is to eat protein while lifting.

Maybe rest more. Often need to read muscle groups longer than a day. Twice a week is good after beginner gains have been made. Muscle grows on rest days.

Add other compound exercises, namely squat and dead lift. Those two lifts help release testosterone. Then as jyl said, pull ups. I think those are better than rows.


As allaircooled said, the 5x5 routines are good. The readers digest version:
5 exercises: squat, bench, overhead press, rows, deadlift
Working set is 5 sets of 5.
Add weight (5 lbs for most, can do 10 for dead and squat) after you complete all reps.
Lift every other day, alternating exercises except for squat, do that each time.

I followed something close (did 3 x 5 instead of 5 x 5) and got decent results in six months. Having never really lifted, I got my bench to 215 at a body weight of 170

12oz curls. Occasionally bump up to a 16oz pint or 24oz Newcastle. Ocassionally go really crazy and do a 40 or two.

What are your goals?

should really only be benching once per week maybe even a bit less often. THat is if you are traing for strength. Work to a higher intensity but less frequently is a good guidline for strenght building. Otherwise full body compound motions are the best for general strength imho. If you want to know how strong somebody is you ask them how much can they deadlift not how much can they bench. Look into power cleans, clean and press, deadlifts, Straight leg deadlifts, front squats can be done without a rack, lunges, etc

This is all hipocracy from me though as I dont work out regularly these days. I was a pretty good "strength athlete" in my younger days though. 380lb no equip bench, 605 deadlift @ 18 years old and 185 lbs. I always gave the advice of shorter workouts, less frequent workout, but much higher intensity is what most people need. Leave the gym beat down but give yourself time to recover

That is a good question. Main goal is to be stronger. Secondary is to feel good, which unfortunately means cutting out 3-4 pints of ice cream a week. Third is to look good as I'm starting to date. At my age, every little bit helps.

I eat fairly well. Never buy packaged food, cook only fresh stuff, eat a lot of chicken, then ground beef, pork and cuts of beef. Reasonable amounts of veggies. Not so much fish. But I eat a lot of protein. Would like to eat more eggs.

I'm finding that if I rest for 2 days, lifting is harder on the third whereas every other, I seem to get some momentum going. When I'm not feeling great, I lift less weight. Good advice on other compound exercises, I've got to clean out my weight room tonight. Weights on one end, clutter on the other.

Sugarwood sent me a link for a bar and I bought one.

Very good advice on this thread, feeling good about the future. THank you!

Starting strength by Mark Rippetoe is known as the best strength training program by far.

Here is the summary on Bodybuilding. Very simple 3x5 program. My lifts went up a ton when I started this program. You have to eat a lot, though. I use myfitnesspal (iphone app) and I count calories (i'm currently cutting, though).

I work out at home, and have tried a number of different "routines" ... P90X... Insanity... The best by far has been Body Beast. Good variety of exercises, and only requires 45min MAX. Results were surprisingly good.

It does however require some equipment. Most of which you seem to have already.

For whole body strength and muscle activation incorporate the basic Olympic lifts into your routine once a week.

Deadlift
Squat
These 2 are amazing whole strength and condition movements all by them selves.

Then start incorporating these as you get your form absolutely correct with the first 2.

Clean
Jerk press
Then as you get stronger, replace the Clean & the Jerk press with the full Clean & Jerk.

It is very important to have proper form with these lifts so look up videos on YouTube for either Crossfit.com or West Side Barbell and there are great examples of proper form.

I know the buzz right now is that Crossfit is too fast and there is bad form but that is the coach's fault and not the actual discipline. Our gym ALWAYS stress's form first and then quickness in the workout as a secondary benefit of getting stronger.

Drink more water. Do not drink soda pop, ever, even that diet crap is just that, crap.

Eat less fat, switch to frozen yogurt maybe, or freeze bananas, strawberries or whatever you like and do smoothies for a treat.

Some sort of cardio to burn calories, stationary bike, zoomba, whatever. Do your cardio in the AM if you can. Get adequate sleep, no, 6 hours is not adequate. Cardio ought to be 6 or 7 days a week, but if you lift a few days and do cardio on other days it is all good.

Do not eat late in the day, like post 1800

Curtail your beer/wine intake.

Swimming is apparently the ultimate exercise. Too boring for me, and I tend to sink. The sinking is not as bad since I quit riding a bicycle every day. My thighs are not bigger than my waist anymore, which also makes it tough to buy pants.

Wait one, you are old now, when did that happen? Last pic I saw of you, you looked about 30.

The best upper body excersizes are ones where you are lifting your own weight. Push ups, pull ups and dips. As many as you can in each set, for 3 sets. add in some dumb bell shoulder presses.

One of my personal favorite excersizes is balancing on the flat side of a bosu with two 35 lb dumb bells. I go down into a squat, come up and do an arm curl, and then into a shoulder press, then a reverse arm curl and back into a squat. 3 sets of 12 reps. It will get your heart pumping!

If you are middle age, stay away from heavy weight. You'll only injure yourself, which is counter productive. I did way to much heavy lifting (squats, deadlifts, bench) in my younger years and paying for it now in my joints.

And plyometric over isometric. Isometric is great for bodybuilding, but not so great for overall conditioning and physical fitness.